Does a photo show tractors lined up to block boats of migrants from landing at the port of Dover in the U.K.? No, that's not true: The photo on social media shows a protest on January 26, 2024, at a French seaside resort where President Emmanuel Macron has a second home. The farmers driving the tractors were protesting against various government farming policies affecting them.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X by @NotFarLeftAtAll on July 23, 2024. The caption read:
Are farmers blocking the beach at Dover to Stop The Boats ?
If so, well done lads 👍🏻
Black text across the image reads:
Farmers blocking boats
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed Jul 24 16:37:39 2024 UTC)
Many comments on this post were incredulous. One said, "Tell me you've never been to Dover without... etc etc" Another comment said, "It's La Touquet in France🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️"
The port of Dover, England (pictured below), is famous for its white cliffs and large developed harbor where ferries begin the English Channel crossing through the Dover Strait to Calais, France. Dover is also the point where many migrants, having come through France and crossed the channel, arrive at the U.K. in boats. An expert Q&A written by a professor in the politics department at the University of Liverpool reviews some of the complex issues facing the two countries and the migrants crossing the channel in boats. There is no mention of this being managed by farmers with tractors on a beach rather than the U.K. Border Force.
(Source: Wikimedia.org download, photo taken November 5, 2006)
On January 26, 2024, farmers staged several dozen tractors on the beach at Le Touquet, France. A video (embedded below) was posted to the France Bleu Nord account on X and was reported on the francebleu.fr website. The article (translated to English by Google) explained:
As farmers' mobilization continues throughout Nord-Pas-de-Calais, several dozen farmers and a hundred tractors arrived in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage early Friday afternoon. A fairly symbolic action in the town where President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte own a second home.
Plusieurs dizaines de tracteurs rassemblés sur la plage du Touquet pic.twitter.com/0A23VruLIP
-- France Bleu Nord (@fbleunord) January 26, 2024
A reverse image search using Google Lens for the photo appearing in the "Farmers blocking boats" post returned only copies of the same post with the false caption. A search on TikTok for the words "plage Touquet tracteur" (beach Touquet tractor) did produce a result -- the exact image from the post (pictured below) including a person in a red coat and a piece of driftwood at the bottom of the sand hill. The scene appears 10 seconds into the 11-second video posted on the day of the event, January 26, 2024 (archived here), with the hashtags:
#france #frenchfarmers #macron #beach #beachvibes #beachlife #tractors #protest #LeTouquet #PasdeCalais #calais #viral #mom #ticktock #momsoftiktok #tiktok #foryoupage #fyp #2024
The text on the video reads:
French farmers line the beach at Le Touquet in the Pas-de-Calais region, where Macron's second home is located.
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Jul 24 19:37:58 2024 UTC)
The event seen in the photo was part of a larger wave of protests that were happening at the time by French farmers against government agricultural policies.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims about farmer protests can be found here.
